QE01 — QE01 Results Recording for a Single Inspection Lot
QE01 records inspection results against one inspection lot number entered by the user. It has no worklist or selection screen, unlike QE51N. It is used when the lot number is already known, typically from a goods receipt slip or a batch program, and is kept for legacy setups and single-lot troubleshooting rather than day-to-day shop-floor recording.
This page covers QE01, the original single-lot results recording transaction in Quality Management, and the structural gap between it and its worklist-based successor QE51N. It focuses on the practical entry sequence, the tables the save writes to, and the diagnostic categories a consultant works through when results don't record, don't validate, or don't trigger a usage decision as expected.
Reviewed by an ERPClimb SAP consultant on 15 Sept 2026· 1,137 words
Purpose
QE01 is the original, single-lot results recording transaction in Quality Management. It opens results recording for exactly one inspection lot number, entered directly by the user, and displays every characteristic due for recording on that lot's inspection plan or specification. The structural fact that explains most of the confusion around it is that QE01 has no worklist: there is no selection screen offering a list of open lots by material, plant, or inspector. The user must already know, or look up, the lot number before starting the transaction. That is fine for scripted or single-piece scenarios where the lot number comes off a goods receipt slip or printed label, but it is the wrong tool when a quality technician needs to work through a shift's backlog of open lots, which is exactly what QE51N was built to handle.
When it is used
QE01 gets used when the inspection lot number is already known and only one lot needs recording, typical right after a goods receipt where the lot number was printed on the material label, or inside a background or batch-input program that loops lot by lot. It is also still common in older configurations where QE51N was never rolled out, or where a customer built a simplified custom screen on top of the QE01 logic. A consultant reaches for QE01 to troubleshoot a single lot in isolation, to confirm the characteristic list, sampling scheme and valuation behaviour without the extra layers of a worklist variant, or to replicate an end user's exact keystrokes when investigating a 'results won't save' ticket. For routine shop-floor recording across many lots, QE51N or a Fiori results recording app is the normal choice; QE01 is reached for narrowly, not as the default entry point.
How to use it in practice
- Call QE01 and enter the inspection lot number directly, found on the goods receipt slip, batch record, or looked up via QA03 if not already known.
- Confirm or change the inspection point or operation if the plan has more than one.
- Review the characteristic list the system pulls from the inspection plan or material specification, checking that every characteristic due is present.
- Enter recorded values, or select a code or catalog valuation for qualitative characteristics.
- Trigger defect recording if a characteristic fails, assigning a defect code and defect location.
- Save. If the inspection type is configured to skip the usage decision, the lot may close automatically; otherwise it stays open for QA11.
Key data objects
- QALS - inspection lot header: status, quantities, usage decision code, reference document, plant and material.
- QAMR - characteristic-level results summary per lot: valuation, mean or single value, control indicators.
- QASE - individual recorded values when a characteristic has multiple samples or readings.
- QAVE - partial-lot or split-quantity data created when the lot is divided during valuation.
How to prove it in the data
Open SE16 on QALS and filter by the lot number, or by material, plant and creation date if the number is unknown. Check the results-recording status field and the usage decision code: a lot still showing results not recorded despite a user claiming they saved usually means the save landed against a different lot number or operation. Cross-check QAMR for the same lot; the count of characteristic entries should equal the number of characteristics on the assigned inspection plan, and a shortfall points at a plan or sampling gap rather than a QE01 problem.
ECC vs S/4HANA
QE01 remains available on S/4HANA with no functional redesign; the ECC-era single-lot flow carries forward unchanged. Some organizations move interactive shop-floor recording to a Fiori results recording app, but that app follows a worklist model closer to QE51N, not QE01. Nothing structurally changed for QE01 itself moving into S/4HANA.
Common pitfalls and how to diagnose them
- Lot not enterable, status or authorization: the lot already has a usage decision, is locked, or sits in the wrong plant, so QE01 refuses to open recording or shows nothing. Check the lot status in QALS or QA03 before touching QE01; do not create a new lot as a workaround, that hides the real one and breaks stock quantity reconciliation.
- Empty or partial characteristic list: caused by an inspection plan that was not correctly assigned at lot creation, or a sampling procedure that returned zero required inspections for the lot quantity. Check the inspection plan and its sampling scheme or dynamic modification rule; QE01 has no configuration of its own to check here.
- Tolerances not enforced, out-of-spec values accepted without warning: the characteristic master is not flagged as quantitative with control limits, or the SPC-required indicator is off. Check the characteristic master and the inspection plan's characteristic control indicators, not QE01 itself.
- Save appears to work but the lot doesn't reflect it: usually a status conflict, the lot was moved to results-recorded status by a background job or another user while the screen was open, or a partial-lot split occurred mid-session. Re-read the lot in QA02 before retrying; repeatedly hammering save on a stale screen can create inconsistent split-lot quantities.
- Automatic usage decision never fires: the inspection type or the material's QM control key does not have the skip-usage-decision setting active. Leave the decision to QA11 rather than trying to force a code into the recording screen manually.
- Results recorded but invisible on the QE51N worklist: usually a mismatch between the processor, plant or profile QE01 was used with and the selection variant QE51N is filtering on. This is a selection issue, not data loss.
Whose problem this is
Functional QM consultant owns the configuration behind results recording: inspection plans, characteristics, sampling procedures. ABAP gets involved if a user-exit or enhancement fired on save is throwing errors or a table update is failing outside standard logic. Basis if a lock (SM12) or authorization object is blocking save. A good handover includes the inspection lot number, plant, the exact error text or screen, and whether the same lot shows correctly on QE51N.
Related SAP objects
Reviewed pages this object connects to in the ERPClimb knowledge graph.
Source: ERPClimb — https://erpclimb.com/sap-tcodes/qe01ERPClimb is an independent platform and is not affiliated with SAP SE. Reference pages are written and reviewed by SAP consultants for learning and troubleshooting.